Back from Christmas

My sister and I have become quite fond of doing finger foods for Christmas. I guess to sound more posh I could call them tapas. The primary focus of the photo is of course on the lil smokies. Then of course we have bacon wrapped water chestnuts, cucumber sandwiches, something we call cold cuts (meats and cheeses) lots of veg, and sweet potato fries. Oooh, don’t forget the cranberry salsa. I brought some for lunch today. Mmmmm…

Christmas was actually decently productive. I finished 1 of my 4 holiday book read books, I’m 3/4 of the way through #2. And ladies and gentlemen, please applaud, I finally finished Story by Robert McKee! Woot! Yeah, that thick textbook, while filled to the brim with good info, just takes a long while to get through. I created myself a little worksheet from my notes which I plan on filling out tonight to get SHADE in proper order.

And speaking of SHADE, I got feedback from my mentor Marieke over the holiday. It was very good and thorough and encouraging. However… (there’s always a however, isn’t there?) Well, she makes a very convincing case that I need to climb another mountain. Not Everest, though. Just maybe that Tablerock hike I love. It’s hard and I usually end up with blisters on my toes, but the view makes it all worthwhile.

The odd thing was it felt like she’d climbed inside my imagination and said, “You know how you were feeling uncertain about this part, it’s because of this.” All of the advice gave words to the problems I’d felt it had. Part of me wants to say it wasn’t the feedback I wanted to hear, but that’s really not true, because I wanted the truth and I got it. That’s not to say she thought SHADE was horrible, awful, terrible, or that it needs a 100% makeover. But she pointed out the flaws and now it’s my job to fix them.

I had a 3.5 hour drive back home yesterday and a lot of time to think. I do love my thinking time. Anyway, I came up with some ideas, and I still am. Something interesting from Story I read was that we writers should put most of our effort into creating the world before we actually put anything down on paper. It made me feel a little more confirmed in my path. I’ve got to lay it all out and see the grand picture so I can climb this new mountain. Marieke believes I’m capable, and I think so too. So, on to thinking, thinking, and thinking.

I’ll give you the details of how everything goes and what I did later. Maybe you’ll find something useful in the process.

In other news, my bro brought his little dog over. Now I’m not the biggest fan of dogs. They usually get up into your business and shed everywhere and want to slobber all over you (at least that’s my typical experience). I have zero pets at my place, so the fact that I can like any dog is pretty much a miracle. Enter Shadow, the yorkie poo (cross breed Yorkshire and poodle).

The reason I post this pic, is Shadow is a lot what I picture Ebon looking like—Logan’s dog from SHADE. All he needs is some black wings, horns and red eyes. Let’s see if Photoshop can help me out there.

Haha! Anyways, he doesn’t shed, he’s too little to be getting up into my business, and he’s extremely sweet. His fur is super soft, like a little teddy bear. A dog like him taught me why it was people love their dogs so much. Granted, I’m still not planning on owning one, but I’ll pet the bro’s when he pays a visit.

So that’s it, back to work. How was your holiday? If you celebrated Christmas, what was your favorite part? Did you make any progress on your own writing projects or are you eager to get back to it now? Let me know in the comments below.

hehe. That’s a pretty good job on the photoshop. I bet having wings would make it even more mischievous. Glad to hear you had a good Christmas. I did too but I’ve been a lazy bum when it comes to getting work done.

Meh, it was Christmas. No need for the use of “lazy bum” words. It’s supposed to be a break. I just happened to have a little extra time and a long drive. Well, that and my parents are older so they go to bed early, which is when Jae settles down for a nice book read. 😉 Man I miss this little dog…

*ahem* You caught me. The blog is offline on purpose. I’ve been fighting an internal battle over blogging for bit and I finally decided to stop blogging. I don’t have a lot of writing time and blogging was taking up a considerable amount of it. (I’m a slow writer to begin with.) I know we’re suppose to blog to build a platform but what good is a platform if you’re not writing? So writing and weight has to come first. I’ll worry about the platform issue later. Don’t worry, I’ll still be reading and commenting. 🙂

I understand. Sometimes I wonder about whether or not I really have time for blogging, but it comes back to that platform thing. But if it really is taking away from writing, well, you’ve got to do what’s best for you.

Might I encourage you though, to even do a week in review post (aka just once a week). Update us on your progress, pose any questions for advice you have or tell us things you learned that might be helpful. I’m willing to bet you can eke out 300 words a week to the blog? I only encourage because I do a lot of marketing, and I know it’s important to build up as much platform as you can.

But in the end, you still need to do what’s best for you, and I respect that. Consider this my only push for continued blogging. Either way I’m glad to have met you through Row80. Here’s to more writing in 2013!

You used my trick against me. I use the same trick to get those who say they don’t have any time to write to write. I ask them how many minutes there are in the day and that surely they can spare 5 minutes of those total minutes to write something, anything. They normally end up agreeing with me and DO end up writing. The logic applies here too. I could give 10-15 minutes up during the week to write a single post for ROW80. And that little bit won’t impact my writing. Heh. So now here’s my question. Is it okay if the posts are only accessible from the ROW80 Linky page? I basically just want it to be a ROW80 “blog” if I’m going to keep it, hidden from the main site. Or do you think I need to add a link to it from the main site?

Why does it have to be for Row80? I mean I like Row80 and it can be for Row80, but does it have to be? Can’t it just be a post about you and your progress? Something you’ve learned, something that happened to you during the week, something about writing—coupled with progress or not. The point is for others to get to know your voice and you. You might even call the section on your site “weekly update.” But I don’t see why it needs to be separate from your official site. I think people like to be able to interact.

But again, go with your gut. It’s your blog/site in the end and you should do with it what feels right to you. I make the time for blogging to make new friendships and meet new people, plus have something for prospective agents to look at to get to know me a little better. But we all have our different goals. Examine what you want out of it (sounds like building a platform was a goal) and decide the best way to get what you want out of it. Best of luck! 😀

What do you mean? I’m not tired of hearing it. 😉 j/k. But in all seriousness, just trying to help a blogger buddy out. I bet you’ll find the week in review therapeutic. Plus it’s a different kind of writing, so it flexes different writing muscles. Looking forward to the weekly posts. 😉

Good luck taking SHADE to the next level! It sounds like you’re on the right track and getting helpful feedback (which is hard to come by). I’m glad to hear that you had a lovely Christmas. We spent the early half of the day with my side of the family and the latter half with my in laws, who are visiting from Mississippi. I managed to finish reading three books this week (I’m off from work until tomorrow) and revise parts of my WIP after getting some comments.

Now that I see the photoshop this is exactly what I pictured Ebon in your book. I love it. I bet he misses you, I miss you already, we will master the bloomin onion next time we Party!!! Have an awesome week sis, you truly are the best

Sounds like good news all around and you have your work cut out for you on SHADE! Also, have you ever wrapped the lil smokies in bacon and sprinkled brown sugar on them? You put them in the oven for a bit and they come out friggin amazing!

Oh I don’t doubt it, but since we had bacon wrapped water chestnuts with the same treatment, we figured that was enough bacon for one Christmas Eve. I may have to try that otherwise. Bacon wrapped anything sounds delicious. 😀